Excited Delirium Syndrome (ExDS): defining based on a review of the literature.

Background: Patients present to police, Emergency Medical Services, and the emergency department with aggressive behavior, altered sensorium, and a host of other signs that may include hyperthermia, "superhuman" strength, diaphoresis, and lack of willingness to yield to overwhelming force. A certain percentage of these individuals will go on to expire from a sudden cardiac arrest and death, despite optimal therapy. Traditionally, the forensic community would often classify these as "Excited Delirium" deaths.

A study of the psychological factors in outcomes for officers who survive ballistic assault.

Among law enforcement personnel, who are subject to assault with firearms, there has been a trend toward decreased mortality and physical morbidity associated with the use of personal protective armor (PPA). Although there has been an increase in the rate of survival, studies of the unique psychological factors associated with this type of assault are essentially nonexistent. The prevalence and nature of the negative psychological sequelae associated with this type of assault and psychological injury, along with effective prevention techniques, were studied through retrospective interviews of registrants in two "body armor survival clubs.